Monday, January 18, 2016

So... a lot happened this week but I only have the time to tell
you the best parts. I left off last week that we received a call from someone
wanting a visit from the missionaries and we made an appointment to visit his
family. So our investigators, his family lives very far away in our area. At
least we THINK it's our area. But anyways, so Tuesday we had almoço close to
Jardim Japao where they live, so we decided to go to his house. The thing about
this is that Jardim Japao doesn´t have missionaries working there because of
its reputation for being extremely dangerous and not safe. But.. we have a
precious family wanting and begging us to teach them. So we did. We had to get
special permission from the bishop, our president, and had the elders escort us
there and back and remain in the lesson with us. So if that tells you anything
about this area... yeah! But it is marvelous! Our investigators aren't married,
so we marked a date and invited them to be married and they said yes.. JUST
LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!! Like, what the heck obrigada Senhor!!!!!!!

So we returned back to Jardim Japao Saturday and had another
lesson and they already want to be baptized, before we even invited them to be.
So this is definitely a miracle. But, now I will rewind and talk about all the
weird parts of the week.

Another day, I don't remember which one, Sister Tesser and I were
on the bridge near our bairro fazendo contatos e falando com as pessoas lá and
a drunk man came up to us yelling that we needed to leave and preach the gospel
in places where it was needed, which wasn´t there because he already believes
in God! So my companion said sorry eu no entende, (sorry I don't understand)
and pretended to be an American that couldn't speak the language very good! and
sense she looks American, he believed her and came up to me to translate for
her!!!!! it was so funny. But then he tried to give me a hug and grab my hand
to kiss it and a literally jumped back and the man fell forward and almost fell
off the bridge onto the highway!!!!!!!!! and we didn't exactly want to help him
up (sorry that´s mean and unkind, but it was necessary) so we ran as fast as we
could!

Another day, I tried guiaba! a fruit here that's so good. I’ve
eaten it before here, but this day was different. Our investigator has a tree
of the fruit in the yard of her and invited us to pick some and eat it! just
like that.... and it all looked rotten and had black holes and obviously the
tree itself was sick. but I picked one, took a bite of it and just ate it. I
looked down to take another bite and saw something moving in it.. and closed my
eyes and took another bite because our investigator was staring at
me! Then I looked down to take another bite and saw the longest skinniest worm I’ve
ever seen in my freaking life just swimming its way around in my fruit! with a
mouthful of fruit and a sight of what i=I practically almost ate, I swallowed
everything in my mouth without chewing, then just told her I didn't like it and
threw the rest on the ground. She was fine with it.. so yeah. So I probably ate
another worm, I later found out it's normal for this fruit to have worms. They´re called bichos de guiaba.. yay. MAS!

Saturday again, we had almoço com
another investigator. They grilled sausage and steak and we ate
with them, and the pastor of their church and his missionary wife! Just imagine
what that was like guys, please just think of all the things that could happen,
because they all happened! The pastor is the pastor of A Assembleia De Deus...
one of the 3 biggest churches in all of Brasil!!!!!!! I´m just going to leave
it that it was a day I’ll never forget.

And after this, we went to Jardim Japao
where one woman in the streets grabbed my arm and starting prophesying my life
for me. It was actually really scary! Nothing she said made sense or was true,
but it freaked me out. Like what in the world is wrong with this creepy place!!

Anyways, we have 2 weddings coming up in the next month so that
will be amazing! My spiritual thought for this week is just about faith. I preach about faith to
everyone who will listen, but it’s something I need to work on too. In Mark
chapter 4, the last parable, I think verses 36-41 talk about Christ calming the
storms and the people say, who is this, that even the seas listen and calm? He
is Christ and He lives and He is here to guide us back to the Kingdom of God. I
invite you all to read it and apply it into your lives in whatever way you can.

I've never truly wanted to come home from my mission. In the very
beginning when I arrived in the field I was really homesick and discouraged
because of the language. My Portuguese vocabulary was limited and I wanted to
help these people more. I wanted to be a hero for these people and help them in
every possible way, but it was literally always above my head because I just
didn't have the words to say everything I wanted to say or to express what they
needed to do or even talk about my experiences. Now, my Portuguese is still
limited, obviously not as limited, but at times I still feel the same. But this
is gift of tongues. The gift that everyone can speak the language of the Holy
Ghost through feelings and when I talk and can’t get my entire point across,
they will understand and they will receive witness that it is true through the
testimony of the spirit of God bearing unto them the truth of my words. And for
this, I need to always have my cup filled with faith. I'm understanding this
more and more each day, because literally without faith we are nothing. E deixo
estas palavras contigo em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.

Oh and Monday night, Sister Moreira had a fever and throwing up in the middle of the night so I put a cold washcloth on her head and a hot one on her feet like I saw in some movie one time to pull the fever down from her head! AND IT WORKED!!!!!! So that explains one of the pictures I sent you if you look closely you can see her head peeking out from the covers. Today is Sister Covey´s birthday so we´re going to Ibiúnato hang out and go shopping with the sisters there!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Monday was really fun, Sister Covey and I decided to study our scriptures while the other two sisters slept! But then Sister Covey had a question.. in the Bible it talks about Cherebum and a flaming sword... but never explains what they actually are. Is a cherub that horse from Hercules? and is the flaming sword symbolism or literally a sword of fire that was placed in front of The Tree? It´s pretty interesting to search in the scriptures. We called the elders and none of them knew either, they hadn't really thought about it. But we gave up on that and played uno for 2 hours and ate skittles, sour patch kids and lemon heads (which i´m now out of Mom so hint hint for próximo vez).

Tuesday was a good, normal day.

Wednesday we had zone conference in Cotia and Treinamento and was really interesting. It was great because I´m finally at the point where I always understand what´s going on. I don´t understand cada palavra ainda, mas sempre a ideia do que esta acontecendo. My companhion and I got into a little bit of an argument afterwards, but in the end we were good and now we have companheirismo that is really strong. I was worried at the beginning of the tranferencia, mas now I really feel like this will be a great 6 weeks.

Thursday we had trainamento dos novos, entao all of the new missionaraies had training in Sao Paulo! The church there is beside the temple, so part of the training was doing contatos outside and handing out LDM´s to people in front of the temple and getting to talk to péople about the temple. Oh my gosh it was amazing and I literally felt like I had Christ walking beside me as my companion the entire time. The lunch was great, and we had great snacks and it was just a really good day! When I got back to my area, my companion and sister covey planned a little festa pra mim because it was my 3 month anniversary! which is a big deal, obviously!

But to answer your questions! So the picture of the pile of clothes on the road was when one day someone just dropped off clothes in the rain, and thinking about Fátima who asked for clothes a while back, Sister Modesto and I grabbed as much as we could in the rain and carried them back to our house to wash. The trees are just weird odd looking but strangely cool plants I thought yáll would like to see! I did receive the book and the picture book.. and this is what happened. So the mail here is unreliable as vezes, and the packages got rained on so they were soaked and the envelopes ripped open.. so the Brazilian post office repacked them in a like a mail type grocery form bag so they wouldn't get wet. But when I received them, all the pages of the picture book were ruined and stuck together and I tried to pull them apart but they just ripped even more.. so that was really sad.

It´s raining every day all day. I think that this is just a sign that summer started. People say it always rains during the summer and it´s always worse the further away from the city.

So here´s some food for thought for yáll that I´ve discovered more about this week. Views and opinions.. everyone has their own. This is something really important to learn and to respect. Our thought are sempre triggered because of actions or coisas happening in our lives at that moment, so one problem that we may have right now may be affecting the way we view a certain sinario. When reading the scriptures, its important to discuss and talk about o que você entendeu from reading and share your thoughts, views, and opinions. It´s important because the person you´re discussing with, perhaps never looked at it from your point of view or never thought about applying it to their lives. We can always boost our knowledge and understanding by doing this with muitas coisas. So think about that during your week!

Anyways, I´m good, my health is good, I´m eating and yes drinking water! OH! Yesterday one of the elders was sick (he´s American and doesn´t confia in the medicine here either) so I pulled out my suitcase of medicine and he should be good in a few days!!!

Em fim, I hope you all have a wonderful week full of milagres and learn about new vistas!

Monday, January 4, 2016

OKAYYYYY, so this week was good. It was a hard one, but
minha nossa it was good. I got my new companion Tuesday, and my life changed.

Not in a bad way, ainda.. mas madou com certeza. Why you ask? I will tell you.
Sister Tesser is muita boa mesmo! She teaches wonderfully and personally and me
ensinei muitas coisas já. But I can´t rely on her. With Sister Modesto,
whenever I felt uncomfortable or felt like I literally couldn´t do something,
she was there to step up and take control. But now, nope… part of my training
now is to learn all the things I should have been doing during the last
transfer. If I don´t feel comfortable, oh well. I better learn how to feel
comfortable. So it was hard and frustrating and difficult this week adapting to
that.. But like you said Mom- it will take at least 4 weeks. Now, with my
pesquisadores.. Our investigator said that she doesn´t want to be baptized. Continue praying for her and for her heart to be opened because I know
there´s something else there about her. Fatima told us the other day that she
always has trouble sleeping at night and feels like she´s being attacked in the
middle of the night. I was really scared when she said this because of what
happened with her last week and that Sister Modesto and I were talking about
this.. We tried to do something about it but she won´t come to church or meet
with a member. But her daughter Vanessa came to church Sunday and loved it!

Also, one day this week we went to the neighborhood/ city called Nagoya with
the different temple to work… and we had success! One family was like farming
beans or something so we offered to help and did that for 3 hours! Then they
cut down 3 canes.. SUGAR CANE! i think. We just chewed the inside of the plant
and it was so good hahaha; ANYWAYS. New Years was a blast. It was basically
PDAY. We spent the whole day baking and I baked 56 cookies. I´m literally a pro
and everyone is always asking me to make more. So New Year’s Eve, all 8 of us
missionaries and the other missionaries in our zone had dinner together in the
church and sang and played guitar and it was really fun! After, the other
sisters from Ibiuna stayed at our house because it was too late for them to
return. So we made beds in the living room and waited until midnight and banged
pots and spoons and had a million huge fireworks in front of our house! It was
awesome and Brazilians learned about our tradition with the pots and pans! The
next day, we were allowed to sleep in until 8 o´clock! It was magnificent. My
language is improving rapidly and for the first time, I can actually tell. By
the end of this transfer I want to be almost fluent and I think I will be if I
keep studying. I´m busting my tail studying right now and learning everything
about the gospel in Portuguese because it´s easier to teach that way. Some
mornings I wake up and feel really alone during study time but I know it´s just
the adversary trying to bring my focus away. I learned so much in the past week
about myself and everything I´m capable of that I hope and pray I can progress
just as much every week for the rest of my life! Everything I do here, I
literally throw my hands up and leave it to The Lord. I do my part first and
then I put every cell in my body in a giant cup of faith and just go with it.
At times I´m still really sensitive when people are rude about my language
skills but I´m learning to let it go. I´ve learned one thing about myself and
it´s this: If I want, I can be the most patient person in the world with other
people. But with myself, no can do. So this year as a meta, I will focus on
being patient com mi mesmo. This is one attribute of Christ that many people
lack, but I will improve on this.. or try at least. I always want to be better
and do more than I can in a certain moment and forget tp breath. I´m really
hard on myself when I shouldn´t be, so I will work on that. Feliz Ano Novo to
you all. Think of all your goals for the New Year and think of how you can receive
help to achieve those goals. We don´t ever to do anything alone, ask The
Lord.